Deputy Chief Executive and Directors biographies

• Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Public Policy and Communications: Ben Kernighan 
• Director of Enterprise and Development: Richard Williams
• Director of Planning and Resources - Coral Newton and Sarah Welsh
   

Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Public Policy and Communications: Ben Kernighan  

Ben Kernighan is Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Public Policy and Communications at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). Ben oversees NCVO’s work on Communications and Information, Partnerships and Public Services, Policy, Research and Foresight, the Compact and NCVO’s European and international function.

NCVO is the largest representative organisation of Civil Society, lobbying for and advising Civil Society organisations. NCVO aims to give a shared voice to voluntary organisations and to help them achieve the highest standards of practice and effectiveness. NCVO’s current membership stands at over 8000 voluntary organisations across the country.

Ben has held a number of positions within NCVO. Prior to this he worked at the Terrence Higgins Trust where his roles included managing fundraising, communications and a variety services.

Currently Ben is a trustee of Business in the Community and Skills Third Sector. In the past Ben has been a trustee of the Basic Skills Agency and the Earls Court Homeless Families Project.    

Director of Enterprise and Development: Richard Williams

Richard is Director of Enterprise and Development at NCVO and is responsible for consultancy and innovation, support and advice, membership and enterprise and the development of new products and services that benefit the Voluntary and Community Sector and environmental issues.

Richard was previously Group Development Director for BTCV where he was responsible for business development, fundraising, public relations, customer relations, and the management of cross sector partnerships. Richard has a background in production management and formal management training.

He has worked in the Voluntary and Community Sector for 29 years focusing on youth enterprise, unemployment measures, environmental issues, social enterprise, partnership development and diversity. His management background was originally in commercial sector production management.

Richard is the founder and trustee of the Wandsworth Youth Enterprise Centre (WYEC) and chairman of one of its subsidiaries Enterprise Development Worldwide, a community interest company that is undertaking consultancy in Enterprise Development.  He is a director of the Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC), a director of the Fundraising Standards Board, a trustee of Maasai Education Discovery (MED), a patron of Minorities of Europe, and a Vice President of BTCV.

Contact

To contact Richard Williams, log in to the site and use the Contact tab on his profile page.  

Director of Planning and Resources: Coral Newton and Sarah Welsh

The Director of Planning and Resources is responsible for the organisation's planning and financial management, the provision of internal services, and supporting the governance of NCVO. The job is shared by Coral Newton and Sarah Welsh, in accordance with NCVO's flexible working policy.   

Coral Newton

Coral Newton is a graduate of Oxford University and a chartered public finance accountant (CPFA) with over 20 years experience in public sector financial management. As a management consultant, she has worked with KPMG, CIPFA, and the Audit Commission to promote best practice in financial management and improve the evaluation and monitoring of public spending programmes. In 2010 she helped to deliver the National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning. 

Coral has worked on a number of major change projects at Director and Board level, including start-ups and mergers in the not for profit sector, in permanent, interim and project-based roles. This included roles at the Adult Learning Inspectorate, Consumer Focus and the Royal College of Nursing.  

Coral has served as Honorary Treasurer of the Howard League for Penal Reform since 2006, and is a member of the Charity Finance Directors Group.

Sarah Welsh  

After graduating from Bristol University, Sarah qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen and then worked for IBM Europe in Paris. 

For the past 18 years Sarah worked for Friends of the Earth as Director of Resources and then Director of Organisational Development where she led programmes of change to improve the effectiveness of Friends of the Earth's work.

Sarah is also Chair of Different Strokes, a charity that provides support for younger stroke survivors.